Berjaya Books, the Borders franchisee in Malaysia, is opening its
third store, in a mall in Penang, today. Berjaya plans to open seven
more Borders over the next five or six years, according to the Edge Daily.
The 60,000-sq.-ft. Kuala Lumpur store is the largest Borders in the world; the new store and future ones are
more in the 20,000-sq.-ft. range.
Manager Janice Yong told the paper that the company is positioning
Borders "to become a lifestyle store where the environment is cosy,
warm, lively yet serene so that customers will keep coming back to us."
Berjaya is bolstering its stock of business, self-help, fiction and
manga titles.
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Congratulations to bookreporter.com, mentioned today in a feature in the Wall Street Journal's
Personal Journal on "Blogs for Shoppers," Web sites with gift
suggestions. "This site is brimming with resources for book lovers like
monthly book-review newsletters and a blog with highlights from the
latest industry conferences and other news. The reviews and suggestions
are compiled by a team of some 75 volunteers and organized by the
site's editor, Carol Fitzgerald, a former marketing services director
at magazine publisher Conde Nast Publications."
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Here's a solid reco. The Australian Booksellers Association has
set the dates for its 2007 annual conference and exhibition: it will be
held June 17-19 at the Hilton on the Park in Melbourne. Dates for the
Australian Book Industry Awards haven't been set, but no worries, they
are scheduled to be held the same weekend. For more information on the
conference, go to the ABA's Web site.